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real PC newbie friendly distro wanted


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My partner's bro-in-law is not conversant AT ALL with a PC. Now he wants one. He wants to surf, email, learn office stuff. Just the basics. He got a brick of a PC and wanted me to install win98 - but 2 separate discs later and nothing will install. I tried installing ubuntu but that won't go either. Its going to the IT recyclers (that's where I work :)).

 

Anyway, I've got hold of another goldie oldie PC. I'm thinking that as the guy has no real prior experience of software, that maybe instead of Win98 blah de blah, that I install a really user friendly linux that looks like windaz. Need some real point and click stuff. So, I've narrowed it down to the following:

 

Linspire, Xandros Lycoris.

 

In that order. It needs to be able to be take the 'testing' of a *complete* newbie, yet offer enough room so he can actually haev fun and enjoy. He won't know the difference between Win/Lin'

 

Anybody got any thoughts on these 3, or any other OS suggestions to look for.

 

My only real concern is that I believe Linspire is so much like windaz it even bad security built in as standard - anyone tried it, liked it, not liked it?

 

Cheers.

Edited by ChrisM
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linspire and xandros are definitely okay and secure. no need to worry.

 

i would suggest to use beatrix (a very stripped down ubuntu with custom kernel), which is very reduced to the basics. you only get openoffice, firefox, evolution and gaim for your everyday work. everything else can be installed later if wanted. but if he doesn't need it, the much better (system stays slim) :)

 

beatrix is a live-cd with hdd install option. and it boots extremely fast. a lot faster than slack, gentoo, ubuntu or mandriva. and the developers haven't seen a box that wouldn't run with it.

 

i always keep a copy of it and i think it is really what you're looking for this time (oh... and it doesn't cost you anything). :)

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of the three you listed i would go with lycoris

it's free

I used lycoris to setup a newbie . new to computers and the person loves it and upgraded to high speed without calling me ..i had installed a nic and they were able to get connected.

 

linspire is very nice and i've used it at times , i have a lifetime subscription ,, it's very nice to browse through linux apps and install with one click and not have to worry about untarring and compiling but for everything you gain you lose something ... it's not free really.

you need a subscription to use click n run it does by default setup the main user as root . the flexablilty isn't there overall

 

Xandros is about the same . it's not free they use something like a click n run subscription and it costs money

i would definatly go with lycoris of the three

 

i have used all three and at one time or another was "sold " on the distro but i always went back to MD

Edited by ddmcse
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Since you got another box, maybe revisit Ubuntu. I've found it to be the best newbie distro. Truly open source, un complicated, everything works and software is narrowed down, making it less confusing for n00bs.

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Guest Sophgoat

I've gotten Mandrake/Mandriva to work reasonably well on some pretty old computers - low RAM, et cetera. Slow but still feasible.

 

I have installed it for friends and family members who are green (greener than I am, and I'm pretty green) and they've had largely positive experiences. I think Mandriva is a newbie-friendly distro, notwithstanding its ability to work for more experienced users as well. In my experience, once I've tweaked a release to my liking, it's golden. I just keep updating to each new release which necessitates more tweaking. But I was looking at a friend's computer with 10.0 last night and realized that it's perfectly fine, particularly for non-demanding users or newbies.

 

Also, if there's a real affinity for Windoze I think KDE is a better place to go than GNOME. I didn't find Kubuntu as polished or effective as Ubuntu.

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I actually tried Xandros Open CD edition once since it was included in the local Linux magazine. My verdict, it's good if you only need it as a desktop but don't use it with a winmodem.

 

It's been a while but maybe you should try Mepis first. That is, if that computer have plenty of RAM. Since it's live CD based, you don't need to install it to try.

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Thanks for the replies.

 

I like the look of Mepis – and he could also get hold of the point and click book which would be useful. Needs a stash of RAM though.

 

Ubuntu, I was initially thinking of installing this as I have a couple of discs just waiting to be installed asomewhere. Also, you don't need huge amounts of memory resources. I agree that once its installed its easy enugh to use. Only one small reservation I have when I tried it out myself recently – it was a pain when recognising floppy discs (yes, some of us still use em!) I always needed to re format the disc if it hadn't been used in the ubuntu box before – not good if you have work saved to disc in the first place. In fact it was bloody frustrating. Doesn't need huge chunks of RAM which is good.

 

I like very much the look of beatrix – a stripped down ubuntu – great for an old machine, and just carrying the basics.

 

Lycoris – looks like it has some good features, has a reasonably good web site, and I like the fact it has what to me looks like easy to use software installer downloads. Not too bad RAM wise.

 

Xandros/Linspire – again looks good for n00bs. mid to heavier on the RAM side of things. Subscriptions though I'm not too sure about. But if he was running winblows, he'd still forkmout for running legit software/security. So maybe this will be OK.

 

I'll drag him over – he can check out the sites, look at his bank balance, and check out the ubuntu live disc.

 

Should be an interesting experience for him though. And I'll remember the tip about winmodems - cheers.

Edited by ChrisM
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oh... ubuntu and floppy disks... you don't need to reformat them if they are dos-disks. just edit the fstab entry for your floppy from fileformat "auto" to "vfat" and it should work like a charm. ;)

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Noob friendly? What's a noob? :D

Anyway, to all ppl new to Linux I recommend either PCLinuxOS (very fine Mandy spinoff, but up to now badly put down by the very poor support for non-english systems and users), and Kanotix, which is surely enough the best Debian4Desktop implementation I've met. Of course neither this one is perfect- it's pure Debian Sid, and a noob will likely have problems with Sid...

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This is how i did it and how i recommend others do it.

 

1st distro: Mandriva: stick with it for a good few months, or if you really like it and don't feel like exploring then stick with it.

 

2nd distro: Ubuntu:You will probably like at first, but then it will start to annoy you.

 

3rd Distro: Debian: You will have fun with debian, because most things don't really work until you fiddle around.

 

4th Distro:Slackware: Slackware is great, really stable and fast, but you will start to yearn for a decent package manager.

 

5th Distro: Gentoo: You will probably learn more in your first week with gentoo than you have in your full time using linux. Oh and portage rocks!

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